Tag Archives: gaming

Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris Jr. left no doubt during a press conference today that his tribe believes it has the authority to continue building and eventually operate its $400 million West Valley casino, despite the Arizona Department of Gaming’s declaration that it will work to block the project.

In return for tribes’ agreement to limit the number and size of casinos and amount of games offered, the poison pill is designed to protect them against state lawmakers or courts granting non-tribal entities licenses to operate casinos in Arizona.

Federal officials on Thursday gave the Tohono O’odham Nation final permission to make land it owns near Glendale part of the reservation, a crucial step toward the tribe’s plans to build a casino there.

As lawmakers and the governor turn every stone and flip every couch cushion for any extra money, the debate about the expansion of gambling – and the money that it could bring to state and local coffers – flares around Arizona.

With slot machines, blackjack tables, alcohol and six poker-style card tables, the set-up at Paradise Cove Social Club in Surprise definitely gives off a casino vibe. The set-up was enough to make at least one state official question exactly what type of operation the Department of Liquor Licenses and Control was considering licensing.

With the opening of two grand, new casino facilities in the Valley of the Sun in the past year-and-a-half and hugely popular televised poker tournaments that create instant millionaires annually, the expansion and popularity of poker can’t be denied.